About four or five years ago, I made a decision a lot of you are staring at right now. I left radio.
I went to work in live hospitality and entertainment. On paper, it made sense. The business was growing, the work was exciting, and radio felt like it was shrinking around me.
That job didn’t pan out. But it put me on a path to where I am today, running my own agency and writing for this site. And it taught me something I didn’t expect to learn this deep into my career.
I remember sitting in my office with a completely different set of questions in front of me. But I kept trying to apply radio logic, and everything I knew, to the problems I was facing at my new job.
The Language You Speak
The language I spoke was radio. Dayparts. Clocks. Quarter-hour maintenance. Talent coaching. The rhythm of a morning show meeting before the sun comes up. Outside the building, I kept translating everything back into it.
I missed it tremendously. And I don’t think I’m alone.
For a lot of people, radio isn’t just a job. It’s how they think, solve problems and connect with people. The question isn’t whether they love it. The question is whether there are enough seats left in the boat.
The Numbers Don’t Lie — But They Don’t Tell Everything
Let’s be honest about the math.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data reported by Radio World, U.S. radio broadcasting employed 118,700 people in 1990. By 2016, that was down to 86,800, a drop of about 27%. The Great Recession alone wiped out nearly 20,000 radio jobs in three years.
The slide hasn’t stopped. BLS data puts radio broadcasting employment at roughly 77,700 in 2024. Broadcast announcers and radio DJs held about 24,100 jobs, and BLS projects that number to fall 5.5% by 2034.
Then there are the layoffs. Audacy made cuts in March 2025, August 2025 and April 2026. iHeartMedia followed in October 2025 and again in June, tied to $50 million in annual savings. Cumulus filed for its second Chapter 11 in March.
But here’s the other side. AM/FM radio still reaches 87% of American adults every week, according to Nielsen’s first-quarter 2026 data. That’s more than any other platform. And BLS projects about 2,300 openings a year for broadcast announcers and radio DJs through 2034.
The audience never left. The jobs got fewer, harder to land and more demanding. Those are two very different problems.
When Do You Make the Call?
Changing course is normal. A long-running BLS study found younger baby boomers held an average of 12.9 jobs between ages 18 and 58. An Indeed survey found the average career changer is 39 and plans the move for about 11 months. And 88% said they were happier afterward.
If you’re on the fence, ask yourself:
- Are you leaving radio, or leaving a company? Those aren’t the same thing. Jason Barrett has pointed out that many smaller companies and local owners are thrilled to be in this business.
- Can you stay connected while you build something else? Podcasting, consulting, voice work, writing. The door doesn’t have to close.
- What does your life need right now? Nobody pays the mortgage with passion.
- If radio called tomorrow, would you pick up? If the answer is yes before you finish the question, pay attention.
The Skills Travel. The Heart Usually Comes Back.
Radio skills travel well. Making content on deadline. Building talent. Selling an idea in 30 seconds. Reading an audience. Those skills made me better in hospitality and entertainment, in sales and now running an agency.
But the translation always ran back to radio. Today I’m close to the business again, writing about it and working with people in it every week. I didn’t need a program director’s chair to speak the language. I just needed to stop pretending I had a different one.
So don’t make this decision out of fear of the next round of cuts. Make it based on what you want your days to sound like. Leaving doesn’t have to mean goodbye. Sometimes it’s the road that brings you back.
I talk to a lot of radio programmers, and I often get asked if I’ll ever go back to programming. I always say I’ll never say never, because I certainly love it. But the economics and the skill level required may not be in my wheelhouse. So I’ll keep writing and keep running my marketing agency. And you’ll see me out and about.
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